Spartans hold off upset-minded Blue Knights in quarterfinal round

Saturday

ASHBURNHAM — When it comes to the postseason, points aren’t awarded for style. All that matters is getting the win. The Oakmont Regional field hockey team proved just that on Friday afternoon.

ASHBURNHAM — When it comes to the postseason, points aren’t awarded for style. All that matters is getting the win. The Oakmont Regional field hockey team proved just that on Friday afternoon.

The Spartans opened their Central Mass. Division 2 Tournament title defense against a hungry Lunenburg squad. Despite the Blue Knights hitting them with their best shot, the Spartans avoided the upset by hanging on for a 1-0 victory in the quarterfinal round at Arthur I. Hurd Memorial Field.

The top-seeded Spartans (14-3) advance to the semifinal round on Monday evening at Lunenburg High School where they will play the winner of Saturday’s game between fourth-seeded Hopedale and fifth-seeded Blackstone Valley Tech. “I thought Lunenburg came out to win. They came out fierce, they came out hard at us and ready to play,” said Oakmont head coach Leanne Roy. “Thank goodness we had the first three or four minutes that we did because otherwise Lunenburg controlled most of that game.”

Oakmont senior captain Sarah Craig potted the lone goal in the contest when she and junior teammate Rachael Lemay hooked up just 2:48 into the first half. Lemay found Craig with a pass inside the circle and Craig put it past Lunenburg goalie Kristen Melanson (5 saves) for the fast 1-0 lead.

“That goal was early in the game. It was just a 25-yard hit going in and then we got the pass off and I got the pass and was going in,” said Craig after the game of her game-winner. “I was going to pass it off but I saw the chance on net and I took it. The ball went into the far corner of the net. It was an exciting moment.”

As far as scoring goes, that was it for the remainder of the contest. Lunenburg, which proved to be unfazed and unintimidated by the powerful Spartans, carried the offensive play as they put the Oakmont defense and the team’s net minder Sam Gastonguay (8 saves) back on its heels.

Prior to the game, Roy and her coaching staff showed the team some motivational videos in an attempt to fire up her players. Despite that, she felt that jitters were a factor prior to the contest.

“I think there were nerves coming in which kind of surprised me because we’ve been in this situation before,” said Roy. “Hey, a win is a win and we’ll take it. We needed to play a lot of defense today.”

Roy was pleased with the play of her back line defenders as she complimented the efforts of Lemay along with seniors Jordan Bartell and Julia Kiedaisch.

“They came up with some big plays against those really fast Lunenburg girls,” said Roy. “They stayed with them and were able to get their sticks in there and thank goodness for that.”

Lunenburg peppered Gastonguay with six first-half shots and eight total in the game. The Blue Knights also carried a 4-1 penalty corner advantage in the first 30 minutes and expanded that to 6-2 at the final whistle.

“We definitely came ready to play. I thought we’ve been playing really well that past few games and we tried to tweak a couple things coming into this one,” said Lunenburg head coach Jen Biery. “Oakmont is a great team that is very well-coached. Our girls knew the challenge in front of them and I thought we did everything well, except put the ball in the net.”

Lunenburg did its best to try and contain Oakmont’s powerful offensive attack. The Blue Knights attempted to bottle up Oakmont senior captains Maddie Moran and Lauren Ladue.

“They have some explosive players on the Oakmont side,” said Biery. “We knew we’d have to try and slow them down if we were going to be in this game. We really worked on double teaming and I thought we did a great job and played really hard.”

The Blue Knights end their 2017 campaign with a 14-5-1 mark. Lunenburg advanced to Friday’s matchup with the Spartans thanks to Wednesday’s thrilling 1-0 win in double-overtime against eighth-seeded Uxbridge.

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